Seconds before he was to present a news bulletin, Afghan television anchor Nisar Nabil put on a black mask as a symbolic protest against Taliban authorities for ordering female presenters to cover their faces on air.
“We are taking a stand in support of our women colleagues,” said Nabil, who works at TOLOnews, Afghanistan’s main private television channel.
“During our live news broadcasts or political shows, we are wearing masks as a protest,” he said, after presenting a bulletin at the channel’s studio in Kabul.
Photo: AFP
Since seizing power last year, the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on women and girls to comply with the group’s austere brand of Islam.
This month Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban head Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to cover up fully in public, including their faces, ideally with the traditional burqa.
The feared Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered female television presenters to follow suit.
After initially defying the order, women presenters are wearing full hijabs and veils that leave only their eyes on view across channels such TOLOnews, 1TV, Shamshad TV and Ariana Television.
However, they have received support from their male colleagues who have launched a campaign to oppose the order.
Male presenters are broadcasting programs on air wearing black masks, sometimes jointly with female colleagues.
“The Taliban want to put pressure on media outlets with these restrictions ... they want media outlets to work according to their plans,” said Nabil, dressed in a blazer, jeans and tie.
Similar scenes unfolded at the offices of 1TV, another leading private channel.
The network’s male presenters and employees wear masks, while women dress in full-body-covering hijabs.
“We are fine with our women presenters wearing Islamic hijabs, but without masks, because it is difficult to conduct a program for three or four hours like that,” said Idrees Faroqi, the channel’s editor-in-chief.
“We are hoping that they revise their decision and remove these restrictions,” he added.
Behind him, a female presenter broadcasts a news bulletin — often wiping out sweat from her face during breaks.
The Taliban officials do not appear to be in favor of rolling back the decree.
“If forcing to wear a tie is correct then why is forcing a hijab wrong?” deputy government spokesman Inamullah Samangani wrote on Twitter this week.
“If a tie can be part of a uniform [on television] why can’t a hijab be?” he said.
A television presenter at 1TV, Mohib Yousufi, said it was just a matter of time before the authorities put similar restrictions on male presenters.
“Many male presenters are now worried that there will be restrictions on them regarding how to dress. I’m worried too,” said Yousufi, who was wearing a black mask and a suit.
Although there are no female presenters at state television, male anchors are airing programs wearing traditional Afghani shalwar kameez.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese